I'm pumping iron!

Yeah ok, get off the floor and stop the laughing.  As if I am ever likely to turn into a gym junkie!

As part of my seemingly never ending cancer treatment I am now pumping iron... directly into a vein! So the story goes after the Radioactive Ablation in February 2013 my iron levels have continued to sink.  I've had every test known to man to work out whats gone wrong, all with no definitive result.

Initially the GP thought it was a consumption issue. I simply wasn't eating enough green leafy veg and steak.  But I thought I was.  I increased consumption and the only thing to rise was my bad cholesterol!!!    So after about 10 months he added oral iron tablets into the mix  (just what I needed, yet another tablet!!!)    6 months later... the iron was still dropping so I was referred to a gastroenterologist.

I saw him and he decided I needed a endoscopy, colonoscopy and a natty little camera inserted into my belly to plot the course of my gut to find out what was wrong in there that iron just didn't like being around.  Of course He also extracted a HUGE amount of cash from my wallet which, once again, my private health insurance failed to cover.   The camera came back with some magnificent pics of my intestine. Pristine!   Absolutely smick!   I saw them, my guts look great!!!  So this ruined his belief in that I had Coeliac disease, a new cancer, ulcers or intestinal bleeding.   His final report read something along the lines of  "it's obviously a consumption issue".   So that was a total waste of time and money and back to the GP I go.

All the time my iron levels are falling even lower and as a result my energy levels are heading southward at an equally alarming rate.   The "normal" range for which I was aiming is between 15-45.  Prior to meeting up with the Gastroman I was running at between 6 and 8.  So back on the steak I went. This time with daily double doses of iron in tablet form.  Naturally you would expect a rise, however slight.... but no.  I dropped for 6 to 4 and finally to 2.   Getting out of bed, walking to the car, preparing a meal, working all became such a burden that I was perpetually exhausted (and grumpy).

Neither I, nor the GP could work it out.  I found a line on an American website that said Radioactive Ablation messes with SOME peoples blood, but nothing more than that.  The post said it was an "uncommon side effect"  but neither the GP or the Gastro believed it.

So I spoke to my friendly pharmacist about it.  He suggested I speak to the GP about inter muscular iron injections.   I did, but the GP gave me three reason NOT to do it.  1.  It can cause immediate heart problems and his surgery does not have a resus room and   2. It can cause horrible skin staining 3.  inter muscular is not a good way of absorbing iron.  It has limited efficacy.  So in desperation he wrote to the Mater Hospital asking them to triage me for an urgent iron transfusion/infusion.   But they refused.  As I was not in active cancer treatment I did not fit their criteria.

My GP is a real  trooper.  He found a private haematologist here in the Hunter who would see me.  I just had to wait 3 months for an appointment!!!   I saw him and he, unlike Gastroman charged me a reasonable amount and 7 days later I was sitting in the Mater getting hooked up to a bag of fluids.  Yes, the Hospital that wouldn't do me 3 months earlier, were now happy to have in in their facility.

I was hooked up at 8.30 am and unhooked a bit after 2pm I think.  There were 8 chairs and 2 beds in the room and they were on high rotation all day.   I was there the longest and chairs either side of me had 3 and 4 people thru them while I just sat and sucked up the goodness.  On the central storage rack I counted over 40 IV set ups in the morning.  When I left there were probably 4 or 5 still hanging there, yet there were still about 12 people in the waiting room!  The staff were on the go all day.

Some weeks on now and the results has been....less than staggering.  In fact I have not felt any relief at all BUT it will take more than one transfusion get me back to "normal".   The Haemo man has decided that "occult gastrointestinal bleeding" is the cause.  What that means is the Haemo man disagrees with Gastroman.  Thing is I really don't care WHAT is causing it, I just want to feel normal again!!!    The doctors are expecting great numbers, as am I.... but only time will tell.

As per usual a few images but be aware some might find them confronting.

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014!

2013 is just about to click over into 2014 and just like that moment when your cars odometer clicks over a special number, it will seem all vital that you experience it and all important and yet strangely totally unimportant in mere moments after the event.

2014 will be an improvement on 2013, as 2013 was on 2012.

As for 2013 I had hoped to leave the whole cancer thing in 2012, but come February I was back in hospital for the Radioactive Iodine Ablation and lost another 8 weeks off work while I was radioactive.  Thinking the worst of it was all behind me I tried to get back into the swing of work and life... but it was not to be. I struggled and struggled until September when Dr Jeff decided it was time to test for all manner of cancers and oddities.  The first tests came back showing there was definitely something a rye (pun intended).  Ultimately I got a clearance on all the "regular" cancers, but Coeliac was preliminarily diagnosed.  So where I had hoped 2014 would be free of hospitals I am, apparently,  incorrect on that.  I go back in in mid February!  But that's the end of it. I am totally over the whole feeling crook senario. AND NO MORE HOSPITAL!  They are full of sick people you know!!!

2013 was filled with wonderful people.  If I began the list this post would go forever.  Let me just say I hope THEY know they are special and made 2013 great for me.  There are some I will never see again. Death and distance keep me apart from some special friends but that doesn't mean they are not thought of.  Distance seems much smaller with the internet being so accessible, but it's not the same as being there.  It IS a whole lot less final than death though.

2014 will see me finish my 100 Strangers photographic project and then work out what to do with it.   I'm stuck on number 64 because I never seem to be well enough to travel far from home.  That will change after February. I also want to spend more time on portraits in general and know a few likely suspects that will get the whole four light set up foisted upon them!  If you are one of those people, fear not... it is mostly painless!  Mostly!!!  I'd shoot more bands at the 16's if some goodies comes up.  It's a great venue for me to practice those skills.  A bit more macro is needed too.  I have a new series in mind too, but I will need the indulgence of a few friends to pull that one off!

2014 will also see me back in the veggie patch.  I'm still planting somewhat randomly. Not really following  a good crop rotation program or even good companion planting.  My record keeping sucks and I need to stagger my planting fortnightly.  So at the moment I get a glut of one veggie and the others are as rare as hens teeth.  I tried growing pumpkins for the first time this year and harvested my first on December 27.  They are messy and run all over the yard, but that just means less mowing! I think I need more flowering plants to encourage more bees, so rejuvenation of one of the beds that runs along the dividing fence is a must.  I have the plants.  It's the energy I am lacking.  Chickens are still a no go zone for me.  I do need to construct some frames for climbers in the yard.  That will have to wait to 2014 now!

So it's back to work on the 3rd for me and the daily grind is drawing closer to an end with retirement in the not too distant future.  But until that day comes I'll still be using photography as my primary escape method.

In celebration of 2013 here are a selection of my fave pics for the year.
Hope you enjoy them too!

Happy Birthday you Silly Yak!

I got something totally amazing for my birthday.   You'll never guess what, so I'll just blurt it out and tell you.  I got coeliac disease!  Woot Woo!!!

Well it wasn't really for my birthday. Like as in it wasn't wrapped up or anything.   Maybe I should explain.... Since my return to work in mid April after Radioactive Ablation in February 2013 I have never felt well.  Never felt right. Never felt like I did before the whole cancer thing.  I was not just feeling physically unwell, but I had a poor work attitude and my moods were less than pleasant.   I had no energy and so in mid september I began seeing a psychologist and my GP on a very regular basis to try and work out what the heck was going on.  Well it has taken some months, untold blood tests, examinations and poking and prodding and chatting to finally get a preliminary finding that I am a coeliac.  Gluten intolerant. An auto immune disease where the villi in my intestine have decided they no longer wish to absorb any iron or vitamin B12 I ingest.  They have shut up shop and will not be nice to me until I cease consuming the bits they don't like.

Now this is a preliminary diagnosis only.  I have been referred to a gastroenterologist who will do a small intestine biopsy to confirm what the Doctor has surmised. Even though I am not fussed on yet another procedure, I do want confirmation one way or the other. So its back to hospital in February.

So what does being a coeliac mean.   Well it means that a toasted sourdough and a beer are out of the question if I want to feel good!!!   In more technical terms it means that gluten, the protein found in wheat, rye and barley is toxic to me.  At this stage I don't know a great deal more about it all, but I expect that to change soon enough! I did investigate the gluten free section of the supermarket this morning and was pretty impressed with the range of items available.  I was unimpressed that a small box of "corn flake" style breakfast cereal was nearly $7 a box!  It does explain why the British Government provide "prescriptions" for subsidised food for coeliacs.  I'm sure I'll figure out the food options though.  I can't see too many changes for my lunches and dinners, but I am a weetbix or oats girl at beakky and that will be an issue!   Oats themselves are fine, but they are usually processed in the same machinery as wheat and apparently that's a no no.

So there is a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I am hopeful that I will begin to feel back to normal soon.  It's been a long hard struggle. And at least it is not another cancer, which is what the Doc suspected from the start!

Next birthday I want something WRAPPED!!!  Thanks in advance!

UPDATE  19 February 2014 :-   The small intestine biopsy was done on 29 January and results were given today.  I am NOT a Coeliac. Nor is it another cancer, in fact they do not know what the problem is, but they are still working on it and I can't ask for more than that.   So I'm back on the sourdough and beer but along the way I learnt how hard it can be for a coeliac and how much wheat is in the everyday food we eat.  Ice cream as an example....  who would have thought ice cream and ice blocks would have wheat in it.  My hat goes off to every coeliac.  It's not an easy life.